GB
10/01/2015. First Visit, Grant Museum of Zoology
Notes taken from the visit:
The Grant Museum is the only remaining university zoology museum in London and contains specimens from the whole of the animal kingdom. The collection dates from the 19th Century and is still added to. The collection contains a wide range of material including; fluid preserved, pinned entomology, taxidermy, freeze-dried and skeletal specimens.
Unique display of the entire animal kingdom, founded by Rober Grant in 1820 he needed the collection to teach, learn about animals and how they relate anatomically.
Natural history museum of animal anatomy. Skeletons are seen as immutable, enshrines the diversity of the collection.
GRANT MUSEUM VISITS
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The purpose of the museum visit was to see the skeletons up close and get a feel for the shape, size and colour differentiation between them. I wanted to determine which skeleton was most fitted to a human face, anatomically (length and width) wise. Focusing on where the eye sockets would sit against the face and where the jaw bone would end, measuring up to the human face as a mask of protection based on a personal interpretation of survival instincts without human influence.
24/01/2015. Second Visit, Grant Museum of Zoology
Visit of analysis:
The purpose of re-visiting the museum was to see the skeletons outside of the glass enclosures and measure, touch and visually record their detail up close. The first visit was educational but I wasn’t able to gain the necessary information that I needed for my design influence. I was hoping to have chosen a relevant animal skull, which would sit against the human face and act as a mask against attackers in the wild (imaginably). I needed the skull to represent a defensive mask and outline the necessary instinctual behaviour a human would acquire to live successfully amongst other predators, purely a visual. To do this I had to measure chosen skulls, this would determine the correct species for my design and making.
After emailing the museum zoologist directly, I was able to re-visit before opening hours on the 24th January to examine and measure the skeletons of my choice. The glass enclosures where opened and this enabled me to correctly see the variation in colours of the skulls belonging to different species, whilst taking closer photographs and actually holding the skulls in my hands.
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Measurements: On table above:
Tiger skull: Forehead to upper jaw (44cm), socket to socket (20cm,
(Front right)
Brown hyena: Forehead to upper jaw (32cm), socket to socket (16cm,
(Front left)
Leopard seal: Forehead to upper jaw (48cm), socket to socket (22cm,
(Back)
Glass enclosures:
Deer skull: Forehead to upper jaw (28cm), socket to socket (15cm),
Muntjac deer skull: Forehead to upper jaw (18cm), socket to socket (13cm,
(Front right)
Wolf: Forehead to upper jaw (26cm), socket to socket (11cm,
Domestic dog: Forehead to upper jaw (25cm), socket to socket (13cm,
(Front right)
Brown bear: Forehead to upper jaw (20cm), socket to socket (9cm,
(Front right)
The most interesting skulls to me personally where the deer and ram skulls, the tiger skulls and the wild dog skulls. The deer skulls where the most detailed and had the largest colour variation, they will be good reference for painting and they where slim enough to fit the width of a human face. For those reasons I will focus, my main survival designs around the deer skull and alter it accordingly to fit the human face without fully restricting the vision